Thursday, April 6, 2017

New Toys Have Arrived

I just picked up some of the orders that I have recently placed. First of all, I received the three ships that I ordered from Sea Dog Studios from their Kickstarter that did not quite go through. They produced some of the ships and sold them to backers at a discount. I picked up two Bermuda Sloops and a Brigantine. I was so happy with them, I put everything else aside and promptly went to work on one of the Bermuda Sloops.

The kits are really nice. The parts are not too fiddly but you do have to cut the masts and spars from longer portions of thin dowel. Assembly was rather quick. Painting it was a bear with the hand shakes that I have from my meds. But I think I still managed something usable. The decking came out darker than I wanted but I still like it. No sails are provided and it makes sense. The Sailpower rules talk about it in that 90% of the game, your sail set that you would put on a model would be wrong anyway. The masts are designed to be taken out for storage and to show damage. My only complaint is about the cannon. Even after trimming the flash off of them, they are too large for the ship. I can't get them to fit properly. I will end up having to file them down until they do fit. Still, I am very happy with what I was able to accomplish with the first model.

It went together well. Was very happy with it. Painting it was very straight forward. I enjoyed it. Been watching amazon Prime movies while doing it.

Very happy with these ships. Now I am just waiting on the smaller ships that I have ordered from Langton Miniatures. I might have to get some Sea Dog 15mm ships as well. But that is another story.

Also, I picked up some Litko Aerosystems movement bases. I have been basing 15mm miniatures on US Pennies for a while now. These movement trays will actually fit them now. I am debating on using them for either my British and French Napoleonics or for my Seven Years War Prussian FreiKorps. I probably need to just buy more and use them for both.

Then there was a large box with my order from Miniature Building Authority. In it was a Southern Plantation, Outbuildings, a Southern Barn and a Russian Village. All very nice. And painted already.

There is a company called Laser Dream Works that makes some 15mm MDF ships. They have a nice Xebec. They still do not qualify as cheap but maybe cheaper. For smaller vessels, 15mm is not too bad. But once you get to the bigger ships (10+ guns) they get pricey.

Actually. I am looking at the smaller ships. Many of the ones from the Revolution were smaller craft. In 1/300 scale, I have bought a bunch of the unarmed small ships. Sailed Launches, yawls and a small gunboat. I have a 10 gun Brigantine and two 6 gun bermuda sloops from Sea Dog. There is a scenario that I want to do from the Revolution July 17, 1775. A Georgia Navy Schooner with two barges from South Carolina, intercept a supply ship and a loyalist pilot boat and capture a large load of powder. They evade a British schooner in the process. All off the coast of Tybee Island. Then there are the actions around Charleston Harbor in September of that year. Just about everything is 12 guns or below. For 1/300 scale, you can't beat Warartisan. He sells plans for $5 each. From there you can really build up some nice stuff. I am sure with creativity, you can expand those to 15mm without issue.

Welcome

This blog is about miniature war gaming and wanders from idea to idea, theme to theme as long as my attention span can hold a thought through to a finished project. If something is not interesting, wait a bit, the topic will change.

Here you will find no pearls of wisdom, but you may stumble upon a few marbles of opinion.